Before Christmas 2013 I was within two pounds of my goal weight. We traveled for Christmas, and then I left for 6 weeks of Bible school plus a one-week chorale tour. When I came home from Bible school, I was over 10 pounds away from goal. I gradually chipped away at the weight, but it wasn’t coming off very fast; the fact that I had quit strenuously exercising probably didn’t help. I’m quite active with training horses and all, but to really lose weight I need more concentrated exercise. As I was struggling with the stubborn weight, I went on yet another trip for about five days. During that time, I totally splurged (and I discovered Voortman’s cookies. Long story. I may or may not have had 11 in one day.), and came back home to a rather significant weight gain. I knew it was a lot of fluid retention, but I just felt nasty and ready to lose what I had gained over the last couple of months. I’d never done a Fuel Cycle, but had been wanting to try, so I decided that the morning after I got back from my trip would be as good a time as any to start one.

Originally, I was going to do the complete two-week Fuel Cycle; but I ended up quitting after one week. The reason? I was constantly having to make something different from what my family was eating, and I just needed more flexibility. The one week was worth it, though. It taught me a lot about what can stall weight loss, and I believe it got my metabolism back and running. From here on out, I’ll be implementing more Deep S and FP meals into my life. And more exercise.

And now for the million-dollar question: how much weight did I lose? I didn’t weigh during the Fuel Cycle because I didn’t want to get discouraged by fluctuations between the different stages. I started on a Monday, so I weighed that morning, and then again the following Monday morning. During that time, I lost 8.8 pounds. Remember, a lot of that was fluid build-up from a weekend up junk food (and I had some other fluid issues that worked in my favor as well…). That Monday after my FC, I ate a day of regular S (Deep S is recommended, but I wanted to get back to “normal” food) to flush the excess glucose that I had accumulated from eating two days of straight E meals (which were my favorite days, by the way), and I also exercised. The next morning I weighed again and had lost another pound. So all in all, I lost almost 10 pounds from one week of Fuel Cycling. I’m now less than 8 pounds away from my goal weight, and ready to implement some of the new things I’ve learned to get these last pounds gone. 🙂

Day 1 9:15-3 eggs with spices fried in coconut oil and sprinkled with feta; Oolong tea 12:30-tuna salad (the store-bought mayo I used to make it was a mistake, but homemade mayo would be fine) over spinach, drizzled with olive oil; a few Muenster cheese cubes; a shake made mostly with ice, almond milk, a little whey protein, gluc, stevia, and extracts (it didn’t turn out well, not creamy at all, even though I added some coconut oil to it) 5:15-porkchop fried in butter, cabbage sautéed in butter, cauliflower with butter, and some plain coconut oil 9:00-Mock Wendy’s Frosty (using an on-plan sweetener) with added coconut oil and some caramel flavoring Exercise: Beginner Kettlebell Workout plus about 5 minutes of freestyling

Mock Wendy’s Frosty (see link above)

Day 2 8:00-pudding made with eggs and butter (didn’t turn out so well), 3 slices of turkey bacon, leftover tuna salad (even though the mayo was a no-no; I didn’t want to waste it) 12:00-one hamburger patty with mustard and horseradish; steamed cauliflower with butter, hot sauce, and spices; Cake in a Mug with soft-serve ice cream (ice, almond milk, gluc, protein powder, stevia, flavorings) 3:30-one slice Muenster cheese with some deli turkey meat and two celery sticks 6:15-spinach and mushrooms; chicken fried in olive oil (I know, olive oil isn’t supposed to be heated that hot, but my mom made supper, and sometimes one just has to be flexible) and seasoned with taco seasoning; hot sauce, mustard, Worcestorshire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil (dressing for salad and chicken); chocolate/banana shake (ice, almond milk, whey protein, gluc, stevia, one egg, cocoa, flavorings); a little salted caramel Skinny Chocolate (coconut oil, whey protein, salt, stevia, caramel extract) 10:30-I know it’s not good to eat so late at night, but we had just gotten home from church and I was hungry and I was going to exercise yet. I had a protein shake and some salted caramel Skinny Chocolate. Exercise: hula-hooping and freestyling for 10 minutes

Most of my favorite shakes take cottage cheese for creaminess, but cottage cheese isn’t allowed on the Deep S days of the Fuel Cycle. Here’s my favorite protein shake for these Deep S days; it’s about as creamy as it’s going to get without cottage cheese: 1 cup crushed ice; 1/2 cup almond milk; 1/2-1 scoop protein powder; 1/2 tsp. glucomannan; 1 farm-fresh egg; stevia or other sweetener to taste; extracts to taste.

I screwed up in the afternoon. I was doing some baking for the first time for a restaurant, and I tasted here and there. Not a lot, but it wasn’t a good idea, I’m sure. I had a cup of Oolong tea to make up for it…

As I was making supper, I had 2 glasses of “raspberry pop.” Good stuff, especially if you need a detox. All it is is a good dose of ACV, some vitamin C powder, stevia, and raspberry flavoring.

4:00-We gave a presentation with our horses at our church’s kid’s club, so today was rather crazy and exhausting. Meals were kind of hit and miss. At 4:00, I grabbed half a Joseph’s pita, munched it plain, and ate some Greek yogurt with sugar-free maple syrup.

A little after 9, I got back home and was ravenous. I made myself a FP version of my Mock Arby’s Jamocha Shake. I didn’t really measure stuff, but it turned out so thick and creamy and was absolutely the best thing ever. I was still hungry, so I made myself a hot drink concoction with various FP stuff and some gluc to give it some substance. And then I got out the dill pickle jar and chowed down.

Exercise: does walking 17 laps around our church ballfield leading a horse count?

1:00-my schedule hasn’t been very conducive to eating lately. Let’s just say that by the time I got home from work, I was ravenous. I made myself some salmon dip with Greek yogurt, mustard, Worcestorshire sauce, spices, and of course some canned salmon. I ate it on one Wasa cracker, some cucumbers, and one carrot stick. I also had dill pickles, and then I made myself this Cake Batter Frappa that I’ve heard so many rave reviews on. It’s good, it really is.

4:10-a very small helping of Greek yogurt and raspberry Slim Belly Jelly

5:30-not enough time between meals, I know. My schedule’s crazy. For supper I had cabbage and broccoli steamed and seasoned with curry powder and Worcestorshire sauce. I had some grilled chicken too, and topped it all with teriyaki sauce. For dessert I made myself another Cake Batter Frappa. It reminds me of birthday cake ice cream (my weakness), especially when I put blue food coloring in it…

4:00-I was making some salmon hummus for my supper and the next day’s lunch, so I snuck a couple garbanzo beans and a bite of salmon. Then I made myself another sweet potato protein shake for the next morning; I snuck a few bites of it and ate the skin off of half a sweet potato. Then I ate a piece of Gwen’s bread and some more garbanzo beans. And a small bite of an off-plan dessert my sister made.

8:45-I was out riding until late, and was starving by the time I got in. I had a huge helping of peas topped with about a cup of salmon hummus (garbanzos, salmon, Dijon mustard, teriyaki sauce, lemon juice, dill weed, hot sauce). I also made myself a mini blueberry cobbler in the microwave (blueberries, Truvia, vanilla flavoring, oats-microwave for 1.5 minutes).

Exercise: I worked outside and rode horse quite a bit today.

Peas with salmon hummus

Single-serving blueberry cobbler

Day 7-Halelujah!

8:00-sweet potato protein shake, a piece of Gwen’s bread, mint tea

12:30-we had a carry-in at church. I had brought myself some salmon hummus to hopefully eat over salad, but I didn’t even need to get it out. I had grilled chicken, cooked carrots, and a lovely bean/tomato/cilantro medley that someone had brought to be served over rice. There were 4 THM desserts there, but I sadly couldn’t eat any of them because they were all S. I did take some home with me to eat the next day, though. I think I did OK with lunch, although I may have gone over the fats allowance by a smidgen. I don’t know how much fat the sauce on the chicken had; I know the sauce was sugar-free, but I don’t know about its fat content. The carrots had a little butter on them, but not much that I could tell. I don’t think there were any fats with the bean medley. I did have two small bites of THM dessert.

It’s not working for me either (it’s not my recipe, but one from another blog), and I tried searching for it on the web but the link that comes up there doesn’t work anymore either. Maybe it was taken down. Sorry about that!

On thm website under Fuel Cycle idea menu they show 2 days Deep S, 2 days E, 2 days FP, then last day Deep S. This doesn’t seem to follow that format. Maybe I’m confused about fuel cycles– are they flexible with the order of days?

Most dairy products like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese (low fat or full fat) have some carbs, so that’s why they’re omitted in a Deep S setting. Deep S focuses on cutting out those ingredients that have a few carbs but are still usually considered S or FP ingredients. Butter is an exception – enjoy your butter in a Deep S setting all you want!

It’s probably the glucomannan. 🙂 I don’t notice the sliminess with the brand I use (link below), so you can try getting the kind I have or decreasing the amount with the brand you’re using (I’d try half). Different brands of gluccie can vary in strength.